I just read that in the early 1980s, Israel invested more per capita in education than any other nation. Guess who came in second? Puerto Rico! I wonder what that list would look like today. As a wild guess I'd think Singapore would be number one today with all their computers and ID cards.

I have an old friend from school who is bummed out because he didn't accomplish what he expected when he set out to accomplish an important goal.

It got me to thinking. This seems to be a common human thinking pattern that we all go through, especially those of us who struggle with the blight of perfectionism. We get disappointed in ourselves because we don't match up to our own absurdly high standards involving impossible goals we set for ourselves. These standards are far and above what we would expect anyone else to do and it's a miracle if we even come close.

Does it make sense to do this? The first part sounds good -- setting high goals for ourselves gives us something to do and helps us focus on accomplishing things. But when these best laid plans oft goes awry, then instead of looking at what we didn't accomplish and getting bummed, depressed and paralyzed, why not look at what we did achieve, be happy that the universe walks forward, and move on to our next adventure?